Fernando Alonso the best say team heads

FORMULA ONE team principals have voted Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso their driver of the year, despite Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel becoming the sport’s youngest triple world champion at 25.

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Fri, Dec 14, 2012

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso

A poll of all the team heads carried out by Britain’s Autosport magazine, with each asked to list their top 10 and award points according to grand prix scoring, placed Alonso first with 269 and Vettel second on 198.

Alonso lost out to Vettel by three points on the track after the season’s finale in Brazil last month.

Fernando Alonso was also voted best driver in 2010 when Vettel took his first championship

The team principals’ scores were kept secret but the magazine said eight of the 12 chose Alonso, who had the biggest winning margin in the five years since the top 10 was started. The Spaniard, who won his two titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, was also voted best driver in 2010 when Vettel took his first championship.

Lewis Hamilton, who is moving to Mercedes from McLaren, finished third in the poll with Kimi Raikkonen fourth for Lotus and McLaren’s Jenson Button fifth.